These two animes are the ultimate bar for me when it comes to determining a good drama/romance anime. The stories conveyed throughout the 52 episodes caused me to experience an extremely wide spectrum of emotions, having me laughing, crying, happy, disheartened and so much more. It’s not by any long stretch that due to this immense emotional rollercoaster, it has earned the top spot as my favourite Anime.

Dog Days

Number two goes to this anime, yeah it’s not an ‘amazing’ anime by a lot of peoples standards. However, I believe it earns this spot because, very similar to number three, this anime takes its genre to a new level. It was the first anime, that I’ve watched, that dealt with the repercussions of both worlds featured. It maintains a gentle, enjoyable feeling for most of the anime and re-enforces ideals of kindness and holding on to memories. It puts a smile on your face and sucks you into its story that you forget things that you should easily remember.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Much like Dog Days this anime challenges the genre that it focused on, in this case Mahou Shoujo. It’s dark, edgy and thought-provoking. It strikes hard and relentlessly catching me off-guard even though I thought I knew what was going to happen. The delivery of the show is extremely powerful, and the transition is perhaps the most haunting part of the anime. How can something that starts so carefree change so much?

Yosuga no Sora

For the way it handles it’s themes and the way it manages to deliver 5 arcs that all feel rewarding to watch, this anime earns the fourth spot on my top ten. The music of the anime is beautiful and suit the mood almost all of the time. The arcs, as mentioned before, are very well presented and develop quite well over the short amount of time that they have. The ability to create a decent story with 30 second segments at the end of each episode also earns some credit.

Code Geass, Code Geass R2

Death Note was perhaps one of the first animes I really enjoyed reading/watching. I was captivated by the intense psychological duels between L and Light, however I found Light so incredibly shallow as a character, he really let the show down for me. So when I watched Code Geass, I found what Death Note was missing. Lelouch seemed far more developed and had greater potential as a character than Light ever did. The addition of the Mecha’s to the anime gave the series adrenaline fuelled fighting scenes and the psychological out-playing was thoroughly enjoyable to watch.

Mirai Nikki

This was an intense anime to watch, enhanced further so that I watched it week by week. The show drew me in and caught my breath ever cliffhanger. The characters were all very interesting and really added a greater level of depth to the high-stakes game. The plot twists were great and added a more exciting experience. This anime did so many things right for me that it was only natural that it would end up on my top ten.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai

This series probably deserves so much higher, if only the second season was a little better. Unhappy with the resolution of the first season, it left me no choice but to be disappointed by the second season. However that aside, this is a great anime. The way that it uses sounds, the animation style and its unique story-telling cement this anime as one of my favourites of all time. I was scared to watch this in the dark at 17 years old. It was a very enjoyable anime to watch, second season aside.

Wolf’s Rain

This was a beautiful series. The way that it moved through its 24 episodes allowed full development of it characters and their interrelationships. The themes presented in the anime hit hard and really caused me to ponder about what it presented. Wolf’s Rain is a great anime, if you have the time to take it slow and really feel for what takes place in the anime.

Hoshizora e Kakeru Hashi

Simple and enjoyable to watch, is why I wanted this in my top ten. It’s great, it covers a variety of different personality types, it’s colourful and takes very little effort to watch and enjoy. It’s a Romance/Harem style anime, but it’s definitely worth the watch. I enjoyed every single episode and the OVA satisfied the inner pervert in me, no complaints here.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWAH! I had the most amazing feeling whilst watching this anime. The way it presented itself and how you travel through the events was awesome. Plus the idea of challenging everything that seeks to beat you down really made this anime for me; I loved the hope and spirit of the anime. If only I had watched it sooner than I actually did, I wouldn’t be stuck comparing it to all the other animes I’d seen previously that deal with the same sort of theme, this was really good, no doubt though.

EXTRA:

These Anime’s didn’t make the top ten but a definitely still worth checking out all of them are quite amazing animes; however they just couldn’t make it into the top ten, unfortunately.

High School of the Dead

S-cry-ed

H2O ~Footprints in the Sand~

Spice and Wolf

Fairy Tail

Umineko no Naku koro ni

Anything by Makoto Shinkai

About Me:

Hey, thanks for reading all those reasons, I have a needless tendency to over justify my decisions so expect a massive wall of text wherever I got, I’m in the process of redesigning everything due to the massive pause I had with watching anime, opinions changed, I saw things a little more than I initially did, plus with studying English and my further occupation in teaching, I thought it was time to be a little more critical.

I’m generally easy-going when it comes with stuff to watch but I put immense strength into my ideals and love when animes cover those ideals. My first ‘anime’ I watched was Interstellar 5555, which was broadcast in parts over Cartoon Network. As off 2014, I will finally make my return trip to Japan, since when I went in 2007, I had no idea what anime was –I had watched maybe 30 episodes of Naruto- so I feel this time there will be a lot more to look for.

I love music, and spend a great deal of my time enjoying it, so naturally I enjoy a lot of Openings and Endings, through those I found Visual Kei, which is now possibly my favourite genre. But I’ll listen to pretty much anything, if the lyrics are good. Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas are probably my favourite band for their lyrics, though not many people would enjoy their ‘style’

I recently also started playing Visual Novels and Eroge, and so far the game that has given me the most enjoyment is Katawa Shoujo. It’s a brilliant visual novel and has motivated me to do things I had stalled on for so long, it’s premise is kinda weird, but if you commit to it, it’s a really rewarding story, regardless of whose arc you go down.

My Favourite manga, is Rosario + Vampire, as the story is far better developed than the Romance/Comedy Harem thing that takes place in the anime, and Tsukune becomes an absolute badass, so mad props to the Manga.

Ratings System:

5 Stars

A five star anime is one that I thoroughly enjoyed, regardless of popular opinion or the faults in it. If I’ve rated it five-stars, it’s an anime that I would always mention when people are talking about what animes they should watch. All my top-ten’s and extras are five-stars but there may be more too. If you want an enjoyable anime, I’d highly recommend these.

4.5 Stars

These are good animes, ones that if someone asked me “hey should I watch this?” I wouldn’t hesitate to say yes, they will be animes that invoke good feelings, have good messages or are just generally well done. I’d suggest giving any of these animes a shot, because they are definitely worth the time.

4 Stars

Good animes, but something, something has annoyed me, or stopped me from enjoying it to the maximum extent, I’d be happy to explain why, as you may have noticed, but as a general rule of thumb, I’d also recommend these animes. They will have gotten me decently excited or I will have

Felt the feels, but not to the extent where I was really hyped about it. Worth a watch regardless.

3.5 Stars

Standard anime got me to watch to the end of it; I had a laugh; got the feels; enjoyed the story or liked the themes, but it just lacked something. I would say give it a shot, you may like it more than I did, but for me, I probably wouldn’t re-watch them any time soon.

3 Stars

This is where I say, “I just managed to sit through it, it was OK at the most” it’s an anime that annoyed me to some degree or just didn’t connect with me at all. I probably had a hard enough time finishing it, so I definitely wouldn’t re-watch it or recommend it.

2.5 Stars

Ok, now we’re starting to irritate me, unless your forcing me to sit down and watch through this, I doubt I will ever rate anything lower than this, I’d be more likely to drop it or hide it in my won’t watch then actually let people know I even considered watching it. I try to only rate stuff I’ve watched fully, or rate it to the point where I dropped it. So yeah don’t expect this one all that much.

Note. Just because they are rated by me doesn't mean they are the best or the worst. It’s just my opinion. Also if you’re browsing through anime and see that one is 3 stars give or take a few. Doesn't mean they are bad. It can be that low either because not enough people have rated it or because too many people have rated it so many crazy and various things that the rating gets mixed up. (borrowed cause I agree with it!)

Favourite Characters (Top 10)

Male:

Male characters have to stand for something; I think that's an important part of being a guy. You gotta believe in yourself so others can believe in you, my top 5 males characters did that for me, and while the rest not so much, they have a feeling of unique awesomeness that earns their spots on my list. I strive to one day, be able to stand for my beliefs and protect the people I care for, so these guys are pretty awesome in that respect.

Tsukune Aono

Battler Ushiromiya (右代宮 戦人)

Maebara Keichi

Simon (TTGL)

Cinque (Dog Days)

Onizuka Eikichi

Nozomu Itoshiki (AKA Zetsubou Sensei)

Toboe

Orihara Izaya

L

Female:

It's funny, someone could look at my top ten girls and fob it off as being obsessed with big boobs. However I don't think that's really the case, for most of my favourite character, they have a spark that they bring to an anime, in their own diverse ways. And I guess, most have this aura that just makes you want to protect them. Lilly's not strictly an Anime character however, she's from the visual novel Katawa Shoujo, but she easily makes my number one. She's a kind and considerate person, that refuses to let even blindness get in the way of her goals. I really admire that trait, and hope maybe one day; I can find a girl that’s even a little bit like that.

Lilly Satou

Tiffania Westwood

Elfleda Mirjasdottir (Effie)

Sae Nakata

Hina Sakai

Princess Millhiore Firianno Biscotti

Mami Tomoe

Katsura Kotonoha

Lizlet L. Chelsie (リズリット・L・チェルシー)

Meme Touwa

Stats (In My Opinion):

The logic behind, Watching, Stalled, Dropped and Won't Watch

Watching: An anime that I am currently watching (no surprises there) and that I fully intend to finish sometime rather soon; so because I like to moderate what I watch –I don’t have the time to watch a whole bunch of new anime- my watching list will be small.

Stalled: No more episodes. Usually the reason I’ll stall an anime, so this should be shortening since I no longer have the ability to mass download animes, and hence I shall have less incomplete anime, so the theory is that this shall be empty, in theory.

Dropped: Nope. I’m not going through with this anymore. I really don’t like ‘dropping’ animes, but Shōnen will cope the red block, because I get really damn tired of those, there will always be exceptions to that though, as there always is.

Won’t Watch: Straight-forward. I’m not looking at them, you can’t convince me to even give it a shot, however I may convince me, and that’s a different story. But usually they go here, I never look at them again.

So that pretty much finishes up everything I feel I need to say, If you want to discuss anime or want some recommendations, I’m happy to talk. I’ve become a lot more active again since I’ve started watching again, so yeah, thanks for taking the time to read this.

I've returned to this site. Due to reading some manga, I have decided to start tracking what I have been watching again, and perhaps find some anime to watch. I think I might have a look at your top ten.

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